![]() Local officials said that US and Nigerien forces were set up by residents.ĭespite the Pentagon’s opposition, some news outlets posted parts of the video, CBS News on Sunday, and SOFREP, a military news outlet focusing on special operations, posed the helmet camera footage in full Monday.Link to version with extra 40 seconds of footage showing deceased US soldier. The area the US troops were patrolling had been under a state of emergency for months and the village where they were was known to be sympathetic to ISIS affiliates. But that assertion was contradicted by what was known to be happening in the region before the attack. The US military initially said that the unit was ambushed while on a low-risk mission, a meeting of village elders for what the military calls KLE, or key leadership engagement. At the time, the Pentagon said it was determining the veracity of the tweet and the photos. Screenshots of what purported to be video from the ambush first surfaced in January, when a Twitter user claimed he had the footage. When help arrived, in the form of French Mirage fighter bombers, it was two hours after the intense firefight began. That conforms with other reports that there was no aerial surveillance available to pick up the preparations for the ambush and that there was no nearby air support to respond to an attack or to evacuate the wounded. If the video is authentic, it shows clearly that the US unit was isolated and exposed in the chaos of the ambush. Now it looks like Americans may look to answers from the video before they get them from the government. The investigation has still not been released, though the Pentagon said Monday that the investigation is completed, is being reviewed by Defense Secretary James Mattis, and will be made public after it's been shared with the families and Congress. Initially, the investigation was meant to take 30 days, then it was delayed till January. Military officials have attributed that delay to the need to get things right, no matter how long it takes. Five months after the ambush, the Pentagon still has not answered many questions about why the US troops found themselves facing a hostile force or what precisely happened. The video surfaces at a complicated moment for the Pentagon. The cannot verify … at this current time any portion of it.” ![]() “Number two, this is an ISIS-produced and developed propaganda video. “Number one, this is terribly difficult on the families, the images alone,” Manning said. In a brutal final shot, the militants come into view of the fallen soldier whose helmet is still filming and shoot him at point-blank range. At the end of the video, the soldier wearing the helmet camera goes down as well, and eventually stops moving. ![]() Two others pull him to safety before running to take cover in shrubs nearby. One of the US soldiers is shot and goes down. While one of the US soldiers drives, the other two jog behind the vehicle and try to fire back. The three then are overwhelmed by a larger group of militants armed with grenades and machine guns. Initially, the video shows three US soldiers taking shelter behind a slow-moving unarmored SUV as reddish clouds from smoke grenades drift across the scene. The nine-minute video opens with West African militants pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before cutting to what it alleges are scenes from the ambush. The video surfaced on Telegram on Sunday. La David Johnson’s body was not recovered until 48 hours after the firefight. 4 when their 12-man team and roughly 30 Nigerien soldiers were ambushed near the village of Tongo Tongo. La David Johnson of the 3rd Special Forces Group were killed Oct. He did not directly answer why the military can’t authenticate the video, asserting that it “can’t confirm something we didn’t produce.” “You are complicit in amplifying ISIS propaganda if you do that,” he told reporters at the Pentagon. “We ask the media and the public and all responsible entities not to aid these terrorists in recruiting efforts by viewing or bringing to attention these images, these videos,” Col. The video ends with a chilling scene when ISIS fighters open fire at close range on the wounded soldier whose camera recorded the video. The Pentagon on Monday refused to verify the authenticity of a propaganda video posted by the Islamic State that includes footage allegedly shot through the helmet camera of one of the four US soldiers killed in a deadly ambush in Niger last fall.Ī Pentagon spokesperson warned reporters that they would be "complicit" with the terrorist group if they publicized it.
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